My primary interest in the television series Lexx (a
German/Canadian co-production, with many of the episodes shot in
Halifax) came from learning that none-other-than JÃ·rg Buttgereit
(Nekromantik, Schramm) actually directed one of
the episodes from the second season, entitled 791.
Currently I have only explored a small number of episodes from
this world of oddball madness, in what has to be described as
Star Trek on acid!

Debuting on Canadian television in 1997, Lexx began as a
four part mini-series, with each part running approximately
90-minutes in length. The episodes from season one include
Lexx 1.0: I Worship His Shadow, Lexx 2.0: Super Nova,
Lexx 3.0: Eating Pattern, and Lexx 4.0: Giga Shadow.
All seasons of the show have had various incarnations on
DVD. Here we take a look at the 2010 release of Lexx Season
One on DVD from Alliance Films.

I Worship His Shadow
introduces the main characters of Lexx and develops the
complicated mythos of the series. In the show's world, there
are two universes, the Light Universe and the Dark Zone. "The
Lexx" is a massive (Manhattan-sized) bio-engineered ship grown
on an area of the Light Universe called the Cluster, which is
dominated by His Devine Shadow. The Lexx is a planet-destroying
ship that resembles a very phallic wingless Dragonfly and is the
most powerful weapon of destruction of both universes. The ship
is fuelled by organic waste, namely bodily human remains.
Lexx 1.0 explores how our main protagonist, Stanley Tweedle
(Brian Downey) becomes captain of The Lexx as well as
introducing his comrades. Zev (Eva Habermann) is an attractive
blue-blonde love slave with the mind of a Cluster Lizard
(picture the creatures from the Tremors movies and you
pretty much have a Cluster Lizard). 790 (Jeffrey Hirschfield)
is a robotic head with crude computer screens for eyes and
mouth, who has the mind of a love slave and a major infatuation
with Zev. The only other member of The Lexx's crew is Kai, the
last of a race called the Brunnen-G. Kai was killed by His
Divine Shadow and turned into a reanimated assassin with a
substance called protoblood. He became a member of The Lexx's
crew when a Divine Predecessor (brain of a previous Divine
Shadow) gave him his memory back. Hard to follow? Don't worry,
after watching a couple of the episodes you absorb a greater
understanding of this somewhat intricate, eccentric world. The
series follows with The Lexx and its crew looking for a new home
as His Divine Shadow desires to get the ship back in his divine
possession.

Super Nova,
the second episode in the series follows the crew exploring
Kai's homeland of Brunnis, in the hopes of finding a way to
extend Kai's undead life. There they run into a (VHS camcorder
quality) holographic image of a character named Poet Man (Tim
Curry), and deal with an approaching explosion of the planet's
sun. This episode suffers on many levels but what kills it for
me is the character of Gigerotta (Ellen Dubin), a cannibal
wearing a retarded looking human skin suit (which would make Ed
Gein roll in his grave) that constantly refers to herself in the
third person. Literally hundreds of times we hear her
mentioning herself in the third person, even several times in
the same sentence. This is the worst episode of season one, but
has a redeeming sequence where Zev bares all for a nude shower
scene.

Eating Pattern
is by far the best of the bunch with a killer guest appearance
by Rutger Hauer (The Hitcher, Blade Runner). The
Lexx is running out of energy and can no longer produce food for
the crew. It is forced to land on what seems to be a baron
wasteland, but appears to contain enough organic matter to
replenish the ship. There the group runs into a race of bizarre
misfits lead by Hauer. This episode fits nicely in a post
apocalyptic mind frame with a horror/science fictional twist
involving a form of sustenance called "pattern". Even though it
is the best of series one, it suffers from a far too wacky
other-the-top conclusion.

The Final episode of the series is Giga Shadow in which
The Lexx returns to the Cluster (to the reluctance of Tweedle)
in search of protoblood for Kai. This episode guest stars
Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Rob Zombie's
Halloween) and explores the "cleansing" process for the
impending birth of something more sinister than His Devine
Shadow, the Giga Shadow.

Lexx is quite possibly the most uniquely warped science fiction
series ever made. Sure, it's hindered by a lot of archaic CGI
from 1997, but it also boasts some beautiful matte paintings and
set pieces. Furthermore, it contains some decent gore for a TV
series, stop motion, practical make-up effects and let's not
forget nudity. With a series such as Lexx, at its
infancy, it holds its own and, for the most part, overcomes its
shortcomings. If anything, Rutger Hauer's guest starring
episode Eating Pattern is worth the price of this release
alone.

Alliance Films presents Lexx Season One in its original
1.33:1 full frame presentation with basic Dolby Digital stereo
2.0 sound. For the most part the picture quality is good with
the exception of some dark scenes in Lexx 2.0 that
contain some digital noise often found in Blu-Ray releases.
This is rather short-lived though and minimally distracting.
This four disc DVD set contains no supplemental features.